1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a transmission assembly for a vehicle, more particularly to a transmission assembly having an electric driven switching mechanism for controlling operation of a current-supplying generator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 201203812 discloses a conventional transmission assembly 12 for a vehicle 100. The vehicle 100 includes an engine housing 101, a crankshaft 102 mounted rotatably in the engine housing 101, a battery charging generator 103 co-rotatably coupled to the crankshaft 102, a manually operative switching mechanism 11, and a current-supplying generator 104. The transmission assembly 12 includes a transmission shaft 122 that is co-rotatably coupled to a shaft 106 of the current-supplying generator 104, a driving gear 112 that is sleeved around the crankshaft 102, and a driven gear 121 that meshes with the driving gear 112 and that is co-axially and securely sleeved on the transmission shaft 122. The switching mechanism 11 includes: a clutch member 111 that is co-rotatably coupled to the crankshaft 102, that is operatively movable relative to the crankshaft 102 to engage and disengage the driving gear 112, and that has a driven protrusion 116; a switching shaft 114 that is mounted rotatably to the engine housing 101 and that is rotatable between a first angular position (not shown) and a second angular position; and a handle 115 for manually driving rotation of the switching shaft 114 between the first and second angular positions. When the switching shaft 114 is rotated from the first angular position to the second angular position, the switching shaft 114 is brought into contact with and pushes the driven protrusion 116 of the clutch member 111, resulting in movement of the clutch member 111 toward the driving gear 112 and engagement between the clutch member 111 and the driving gear 112. As a consequence, a rotational power of the crankshaft 102 can be transmitted to the shaft 106 of the current-supplying generator 104 through the driving gear 112, the driven gear 121 and the transmission shaft 122, thereby permitting generation of electric power by the current-supplying generator 104.
Since rotation of the switching shaft 114 is manually operated by the user, and since undesired collision between the clutch member 111 and the driving gear 112 tends to occur when the switching shaft 114 is rotated to bring into engagement and disengagement between the clutch member 111 and the driving gear 112 and when the clutch member 111 is co-rotated with the crankshaft 102, significant safety concerns arise.